Saudi consultative council urges CITC to reduce telecoms tariffs

The Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia, also known as the Shura Council, has urged Saudi Arabian telecoms regulator, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), to take steps to reduce telecoms tariffs in the Kingdom, as the current charges reportedly account for 30% of an average person’s income, Arab News reports. Fahaad Al Hamad, assistant president of the council, pointed out that a study conducted by the Saudi Consumer Protection Association (CPA) in 2013 found that Saudi Arabia has some of the world’s highest telecoms tariffs.

As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in May 2013 the CPA published the results of a survey, which found that prices in the Kingdom were among the highest in the world, with a rate of SAR0.35 (USD0.093) per minute, compared to an average of seven Saudi halalas (USD0.019) per minute in the rest of the world. The CPA’s survey figures represented ‘costs for all communication services, including the internet.’